


Inspirational Source Material

by DBSommer



Category: Shiki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:42:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28085637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DBSommer/pseuds/DBSommer
Summary: It turns out Sunako might not have been as original in her idea as she led others to believe.
Kudos: 3





	Inspirational Source Material

Inspirational Source Material

A Shiki fanfic

As always I do not own the rights to the characters herein.

All my stuff is stored at ff.net and ao3 now

Author’s comments. This is a brief one. I haven’t even seen Shiki in years, and this is humor based, which Shiki is decidedly not. But obviously that’s never stopped me before, or we wouldn’t have had Yokohama Quiet Country Café and Fist of the North Star combined.

Come on, you know Alpha poking crazed psychos and making them explode is fun. 

So now that you’ve been forewarned, let’s get on with it, shall we?

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Kirishiki ‘family’ rested in their castle on the hill on the outskirts of Sotoba. It was night and the windows were open to allow the cool night air into their new home. All of them rested in one of the social areas of the small-scale castle, having fed recently, and relaxed about the room.

Chizuru looked to her adoptive daughter, who was more like a foster mother, Sunako. “I must say this idea of yours is truly inspirational. Relocating to a remote rural village and feeding off the inhabitants one by one is genius. Thanks to their isolation and insular nature, no one outside the area will know anything is going on.”

Seishirou, the only human in the room, smiled. “Thanks to our people we can even take out an entire family, then have our moving trucks show up, get everything out, and have our ‘movers’ claim the family bought a new home somewhere else, leaving no one the wiser. There might be a few issues with some of our new ‘family members’ rising and feeding on the locals as well, but by the time they realize the depths of their predicament, it’ll be too late to do anything about it.”

“Please don’t be so ecstatic. I’m doing this to create a safe place for shiki to live,” Sunako reminded him.

“For us, yes. For the humans, not so much,” Chizuru laughed giddily. 

“Must you be so crude?” Sunako asked. Even Seishirou gave the beautiful woman a look of disapproval. 

Just as she was about to respond, Chizuru sniffed the air. “Does anyone else smell smoke?”

She followed the scent to the open second story window. She looked down to see what appeared to be the entire village populous down below. Given the smell was coming from torches many bore, the rage on their faces, and the variety of weapons they carried, it qualified as an angry mob. They even had pitchforks. Clearly they were putting some effort into this.

One of them shouted up, “We know what you’re up to! You think you could fool us for long? Once our people started dying the way they did, it didn’t take much to put it all together! We read the damn book, too! We won’t give you a chance to turn us into bloodsucking monsters like yourselves! You’re going to die at our hands before the night’s out!”

Chizuru backed away from the window and turned to Sunako. “This doesn’t make any sense. What do they mean they read the book, too? Seishin’s essays don’t have anything to do with shiki.”

Sunako held her hand to her chin in thought. “Well, perhaps some of my plan came from a novel.”

“How much?” Seishirou asked.

“All of it,” she replied. “But it’s all right. It was some obscure American novelist, so no one could have possible read it. I believe his name was Rex. Wait, wrong language. It was King. Stefon… no, Stephen King.”

“He’s one of the world’s most famous authors!” Chizuru screeched. 

“I doubt that,” Sunako scoffed. “He lives in Maine. It’s my understanding it’s nearly as rural and isolated as this place. It’s likely a different Stephen King you’re thinking of.”

“It’s the same author!” she insisted.

“Even if it is, I doubt anyone in Japan has read any of his books. Not when there are so many Japanese works to choose from instead. Take those isekai things I’ve heard about.”

“They’re only popular with a certain demographic. Outside of that not many read them.”

“What about those Godzilla novels?”

“Those are movies, not books!”

“Well, what about that huge number of novels everyone talks about? The ones with the pictures.”

“Are you… are you talking about manga?”

“I believe they are more appropriately referred to as ‘graphic novels’.”

“No they aren’t!” Chizuru screeched so loudly even the mob outside hesitated. “I can’t believe you were so stupid as to lift a plan as specific as this from a book millions of people have read!”

“I don’t see why anyone would make the connection,” Sunako contended. “Barlow was an evil being who reveled in killing. I only do it for survival. We’re nothing alike.”

“Not a single one of your victims cared about that distinction when you unwillingly drained them of their blood, killed them, then had them come back as bloodthirsty monsters who would murder their family and loved ones in order to feed! Seriously, if you had said, ‘Terribly sorry about this. Need some blood, and it’s either you or me, but rest assured, I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t have to,’ they would not have gone, ‘Oh, well if that’s the case, here some Type O’, and bared their neck for you.”

“I’d love for that to happen to me,” Seishirou contended.

“You do understand that you are as fucked up as the rest of us, right?”

“I had terrible parents,” Seishirou pointed out.

“You’re willingly helping a bunch of monsters go around and commit mass murder. That is not the go to thing of having a terrible upbringing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not any better, but I don’t deny I’m a fucked up, mass murdering monster perpetuating the same cycle that created me.”

“You seem a touch bitter today,” Sunako said.

“We’re going to be killed by an angry mob because you were too lazy to come up with a plan of your own and stole it from a book everyone read.”

“I did not steal it: I was inspired by it. Much the same way it’s not plagiarizing when you write it down: it’s paying homage to the source material.”

Chizuru sighed. “I can’t believe you thought I was the one that was going to bungle things.”

“We did bet on that,” Seishirou pointed out to Sunako, then looked out the window. “By the way, can you burn down a castle?”

“Not easily,” Sunako said. 

“What if you had barrels of flammable liquid on hand?”

“It depends on how many they brought.”

“All of them, I think.” Seishirou stopped counting at twenty. “Did the book mention how to escape from a situation like this?”

“Actually Barlow died in the end. In hindsight perhaps this was not the best choice of plans after all.” Sunako conceded as smoke from the conflagration below began to drift into the open window.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

[End fic]

I have to admit, when I got halfway through the series and realized it was basically the exact same plot as Salem’s Lot, and it didn’t tell me that in advance, I was irritated. It really is with some minor changes and of course the writing isn’t as strong as King’s. But hey, I can use it for some laughs.


End file.
